CB Fry

Took Cheltenham from non league obscurity into what is now League One and established them as a solid league club in a town with no football heritage whatsoever. Won the FA Trophy. Think what you would think of, say, Jason Dodd if he took Eastleigh into League One in five-six years. That level of achievement. Three solid seasons of CCC football at Burnley. Excellent start at Stoke in CCC, before his ill fated sojourn into the Premier League with Sunderland. Highly respected coach's coach. Lots of great contacts in the game, and Harry Redknapp . He's not my first choice but he has the calibre to do a job for us, and as I said in my original post, has acheived more than Tisdale.

Steve Cotterill has achieved more than Paul Tisdale and he is treated like the second coming by some on here.

No surprises who is starting spiteful threads looking backwards. Desperate to stir up an argument, are we sweetheart? If Lowe released a statement you'd be the first to rip it apart anyway, so why ask for one. None of the rest of us give a flying what he thinks.

Because it is an hilarious internet joke. It was funny to begin with, now it is just maintained by about five posters on here. No one wants actually Widdrington to be Saints manager. Not even his mum.

For some reason I am thinking it is Iain Dowie. That's who I think Le Tiss had lined up (I don't think Keegan was ever a goer, mainly because of his compensation claim). Dowie would rather be manager in L1 (at a club on the up up UP) than a CCC assistant, surely?

Quite. I don't quite get the gooeyness about Wotte. In his position I would have "been loyal" to Saints as well - he's never going to get a better job anywhere else. Not that much of a self sacrifice. Good luck in the Egyptian second division, Mark. Send us a postcard.

Quite - I'd have thought promoting Fulham from the third tier was a more relevent comparison to where we are (I believe it is the third tier). It also happened more recently than the Newcastle stuff. Not sure we're going to get far if our criteria is "better than Alex Ferguson over a league season".

His entire appointment was a "restriction". He got the job on the back of being cheap and being able to work in "restrictions". If we didn't have restrictions he would never ever have been given the job. It's not like he had the rug taken away - quite the contrary, Wotte had more resources than Poortvilet had. We now no longer have "restrictions" so we don't need a restrictions specialist anymore. Thanks, but see ya.

Would be a brilliant appointment and difficult to see him being anything other than a success at Saints. We need efficiency and fitness and he is the man to deliver that, and he has something to prove.

Keegan would be brilliant, and we'd power through League one with him at the helm. The criticisms of him are fair enough were we a mid table Prem team looking to finish sixth. But we are a L1 team looking to make the play offs against Yeovil, Oldham and Swindon. Keegan could deliver that stood on his head, pack the stadium (for L1), play some good football and keep our profile sky-high in the national football consciousness. Keegan would be fan-bloody-tastic.

It's unbeleivable he wants to stay, I doubt anyone would have begrudged him a move to the Prem, especially as he had been training at WHU. So for him to stay is just fantastic. Probably player of the season already.

This is probably about right. Let him run the academy. I really don't get the fawning over Wotte and his dignity etc, he did what anyone else in his situation would do, especially as he wasn't working for free and clever enough to know this represents his best chance to make a name for himself. And whatever anyone is saying now the vast majority of people would have bounced Wotte out the door on the back of a Keegan appointment two weeks ago. Wotte is a relic from the bad old days. Let the new good times roll, and lets appoint a dynamic exciting manager to unite the fanbase and drag us into the CCC. Or, failing that, appoint Lawrie Sanchez.

Is it f*ck. Sorry for dredging this up but I've had dogs abuse for daring to suggest two things a) the league were not lying b) and as long as deal was done with satisfied creditors we'd be deducted ten points. No more, no less. Why that offended so many people I will never know. But I was bloody right all along so I am ****ed off at the response I kept getting for saying something which to me was just clankingly obvious. This is my last contribution on this subject.

This just in from the the good Doctor Mawhinney at the Football League. As expected, the additional points deducted and reasons as follows: 10 points - the much anticipated "Catch-22" punishment where SFC can't produce CVA because they were never in administration in the first place even though all debts have been cleared by SLH that was in admin. Or something. 5 points - the League have activated their "we were lying all along" as the highly educated and more perceptive posters spotted. They were clever enough to understand that their six seperate denials across four different new agencies that they planned to deduct any further points was just an elaborate porkie pie pie. 2 points - because the league "backtracked" (oh, we're good) from really deducting them, and then did some more. God we hate stripes. 5 points - because sanctions had a "s" at the end and everything. Stands to reason. 10 points - activated by Neil Doncaster from the board of Norwich City on the grounds of "if I can't deduct points from rivals what am I doing on the FL board? Screw em." 7 points - activated by Robin Norwich from the board of Doncaster Rovers on the grounds that being fictional does not stop me from having it in for Southampton Football Club. Everyone else in world football does. More than anyone. 4 points accrued on a point for every 100 contacts from Saints fans bombarding emails to the league waiting for "clarification of the rules". Final total 417. 1 point added for the 311 fans complaining they didn't get a personalised telephone reply from Mawhinney and instead recieved a standard email. 10 points becuase LUTON GOT POINTS DEDUCTED!!! I DON'T KNOW WHY BUT THEY DID THEY DID THEY DID AND WE WILL FROM THE BACKTRACKING LYING LEAGUE. THEY WILL THEY WILL THEY WILL. Okay, you win. Call it Eleven points. 1 point for Fialka and his unfortnate ears. And TWENTY SEVEN more points suspended for a year on the grounds the self persecuting conspiracy ranters will be lost without some higher evil to moan about. We'll call it the Lowe toll. All in all, I think we deserve it. Bring on the brighter tomorrow, and a day with no bloody paranoia any more.

That article doesn't say anything additional to what was on South Today and the BBC website. Just waiting for the funds.

Unlikely. He looked like a single figure (that figure being one) billionaire. It would keep you in cuckoo clocks but its not mind blowing in British football. And I am assuming Randy Learner restraint over Man City loopiness. Plenty for us though.

I think you'll find the fans were there when we played Man United in the cup. There was no Lowe out boycott beyond a couple of hundred people and you know it.

Newcastle have been up for sale since September 2008. So if by "a matter of weeks" you mean "ten months" then yes, it is amazing they have done it in a matter of weeks. It's frustrating ours has dragged and dragged over, er, four months. Oh, now it is all "wrapped up", who has bought them, by the way? I think I missed that on the news.

Did he? Can't remember. I'll forgive him for producing such a beautiful post in the same way we all forgive the King of Pop for taking twelve year olds up the helter skelter because he wrote such wonderful music.

That post is a thing of innocent wonder and simple beauty. Marvellous and definitely the medal winner.

Well, If I'm right we'd be on 10 points, so you can hardly accuse me of wanting the worst for the club, can you? The catch-22 was one of the most ridiculous conspiracy theories on here, and it won't happen. There's a small chance the creditors still won't be happy and we don't get a CVA and then we would get minus fifteen, but that isn't the catch-22 people were talking about. But happiliy enough, that looks unlikely now. But we'll see won't we.

Just have to wait for the league to activate the "catch-22" minus ten points. Oh, and the additional fifteen points they are going to take off us because Alpine said they would because he said the league are no good lying liars who deduct points just for a laugh.

Sorry mate - reading it again I can see it . Bedtime for me then.

To be fair the Football League haven't "moved" any "goalposts" since this entire process started. That's just in the heads of Tony Lynam and a few paranoid delusional conspiracy theorists on a web forum.

That's my guess. It's a little project for junior. No you can't have one of those big Premier clubs. It's Southampton or nothing. Now, put your Nintendo DSi down and eat one more piece of broccoli before you get down from the table.